Improvements of Existing Knowledge Management Practices in the Consumer Electronics Industry

This Field Project report investigated best practices for Knowledge Management (KM) and Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) and sought to devise a recommended action plan for the author's employer's existing KMS. A literature review was conducted to first establish a sampling of different methodologies that may be applicable to a given KMS. Upon review of the different methodologies and additional research sources, themes were identified in the literature. These themes and components were combined and summarized to present a list of key components that are present in the most successful KMSs. The research was then conducted in the following manner. First, a historical documentation review was completed to evaluate what the company originally aimed at accomplishing with the current KMS. This documentation review consisted of reviewing a former Field Project report in which the author's company's original KMS was established. In addition to the former Field Project, internal company documentation was reviewed to help understand the switch from one particular KMS software to another software during the life of the KMS. These two historical documents were then used to develop a survey to measure and evaluate the current KMS against the previously stated goals found in the documentation. The primary output of the report lies in the recommended action plan. The recommended action plan provides literature-backed guidance for implementing best practices based on the results of the survey and with respect to the former documentation